“My dear friend, my niece has sent me to ask you to come to breakfast with us and to drink a cup of tea. She hurried me, she hurried me so! Luckily, I dress very fast. When one has acted in theatricals, one is so accustomed to change one’s costume! By the way, my dear Monsieur Dalbreuse, what is this that my niece tells me? You attempted to go away last night, to leave us without even bidding us good-bye?”
“It is true, monsieur, that——”
“The idea of skipping scenes like that! of running away! I don’t understand that anyone is pursuing you, like Monsieur de Pourceaugnac. Ha! ha! ha! how I have made people laugh playing that devilish Pourceaugnac! It is a terribly hard part; many people have acted it, but the man whom I rank above all others in it is Baptiste Cadet. Ah! such admirable fooling, monsieur! For Pourceaugnac is not stupid, he’s a fool, but a well-bred fool; he shouldn’t be made an idiot with no manners. Baptiste Cadet grasped perfectly all those delicate shades of character, and——”
“But, monsieur, if mademoiselle your niece is waiting for us——”
“Yes, you are right, she is waiting for us. I warn you that she is terribly angry with you. That’s why she wants you to come to breakfast with us. She said that you were a horrid man. Ha! ha!”
I followed Monsieur Roquencourt. So Caroline proposed to scold me because I had intended to go away; had she a right to do it? To my mind, she had not.
Mademoiselle Derbin was sitting down and drinking tea; she honored me with a slight nod; I saw plainly enough that she was angry, but that she did not mean to appear so.
Monsieur Roquencourt took my hand and presented me to his niece with a comical expression on his face.
“‘Bourguignon, here is Lisette; Lisette, here is Bourguignon.’”
“What does all this mean, uncle?” said Caroline testily. “What are you talking about, with your Bourguignons and your Lisettes?”